Columnist Peter Benton: Four selected for golf’s top destination

Peter Benton

Wednesday, May 5, 2004 | 9:38 a.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

The World Golf Hall of Fame is the ultimate place for the celebration and recognition of golf's greatest players and contributors.

Isao Aoki, Charlie Sifford, Tom Kite and Marlene Stewart Streit will make up the hall's class of 2004, Tim Finchem, commissioner of the PGA tour, announced.

Selected from a large group of nominees, the four chosen received the mandatory minimum of 70 percent of the votes from the voting members of the Golf Writers Association of America. In November they will join the current 100 members of the hall of fame. The hall is in St. Augustine, Fla.

Highlights of the careers of this year's class:

Isao Aoki: 73 career victories; 56 wins on the Japanese tour; five times Japan's leading money winner; nine victories on the Champions tour; his lone PGA Tour victory came at the 1983 Hawaiian Open.

Tom Kite: 19 PGA tour victories; winner of the 1992 U.S. Open and 1998 Players Championship; has won six Champions tour titles; a seven-time U.S. Ryder Cup member and the 1997 team captain.

Charlie Sifford: In 1961 he became the first black person to play full-time on the PGA tour; won two PGA tour events, the 1967 Greater Hartford Open and the 1969 Los Angeles Open; an original member of the Champions tour; won the 1975 PGA seniors championship; endured racial slurs, taunts and even death threats for years.

Marlene Stewart Streit: The first Canadian to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, she is the only golfer to have won the Australian, British, Canadian and United States women's amateur championships; won 11 Canadian Ladies Open Amateur titles, nine Canadian Ladies Close Amateur titles and three Canadian Ladies Senior Women's Amateur tournaments; won four USGA events, including the 1956 U.S. Women's Amateur; in 2003, she captured her third U.S. Senior Women's Amateur, becoming, at 69, the oldest player ever to win this tournament. Streit and Jack Nicklaus are the only players to win the same championship in three decades.

"It is profoundly gratifying to be recognized by my peers," said Moore, first assistant professional at Aliante. "Being placed on the same page as Butch Harmon, Mike Davis and others puts my lifework in perspective and validates my efforts as an instructor."